Blog - Page 25 of 35 - Human - People & Culture

“You need to embrace the whole business, not just HR”. Kate Douglas, HR Director talks to us about her career in HR.

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As part of our commitment to supporting candidates in developing fulfilling careers, we’ve invited some HR Leaders to share the secrets of their success. This week, we had a great conversation with Kate Douglas, who until recently was the HR Director at Clear Channel UK, before which she held senior business partnering roles with a number of organisations such as Vodafone, Heathrow, BskyB, Capital Radio, as well as being the HR Manager at Panasonic’s European HQ. How did you get into HR? ‘I didn’t get straight into HR. I started work as a graduate management trainee for a logistics company and intended to work in Operations. Early on, I had an opportunity to take up an HR role and I thought I’d give it a go for a year or so, but once I started in HR, I loved it and that was it!.’ ‘My career to date has been primarily in generalist roles. Many of my roles have also had significant transformational elements to them, for example at Capital Radio where there were a lot of organisational changes at the time, as well as transforming the HR team to a full business partnering function. It was very empowering and satisfying in terms of seeing the value HR can add.’ What would you say were the three core skills that are important for HR Leaders in 2019? ‘I think being an HR director in a SME requires a balance of two elements. There’s leading the HR function, being a team manager and representing the people agenda, but also being also part of the wider leadership team.’ “There’s a balance to strike in terms of being a member of that team leading the overall business as well as coaching, supporting, and advising them as leaders. The ability to manage those sensitivities can be critical to success”. “Flexibility, resilience and emotional intelligence are key skills necessary to be able to understand the what, the how, and the why of a business and its people.’ What key themes or challenges are you seeing the sector face? “One of the important initiatives that I was recently working on was on Diversity and Inclusion. It’s not necessarily a new subject but the current climate has created a certain amount of momentum – think of the ‘#me too’ campaign and the gender pay gap reporting requirements.”. “We were doing a lot of work on diversity with respect to attracting different demographics into the media industry, working with other media businesses to say, “How can we attract more diversity into the whole industry, rather than just as individual companies?” We were also talking a lot about diversity of thought, – having different perspectives and opinions and enabling the different demographics from across the business to feel comfortable to contribute more.’ What career advice would give to someone is at the start of their HR career or looking for a step up? “I think at the start of their career, it’s important to be willing to muck in and get stuck into the basics, to get a breadth of knowledge. There’s been a trend where people go straight into business partnering, whereas I think getting that broad generalist background is really valuable. Knowing basic employee relations, dealing with disciplinary and grievance helps shape your future thinking on motivation and engagement. To be a strong HR leader, it’s really useful to have understanding of the whole HR life cycle”. “For a business partner stepping up, maturity of approach is always a key element. You want to make sure that you understand the business parameters and the business drivers. You need to embrace the whole business, not just HR”. If you are interested in having a confidential conversation about your career or would like support growing your team, please get in touch today.

“You need to embrace the whole business, not just HR”. Kate Douglas, HR Director talks to us about her career in HR. Read More »

“Use your knowledge as a blueprint”. Oliver Gant, HR Director at Arriva Rail London talks to us about HR Leadership in 2019

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As part of our commitment to supporting candidates to develop fulfilling careers, we’ve invited some HR Leaders to let us in on the secrets of their success. This week we had a great conversation with Oliver Gant, HR Director at Arriva Rail London. We asked Oliver a few questions about his career in HR. Oliver’s career spans personal safety and physical training, agriculture, food manufacturing, mental health, and most recently transport. Like many HR professionals, Oliver’s journey did not start in the HR field. His journey began as a physical trainer but eventually felt his career was not progressing. So, he stepped out of his comfort zone and applied for an HR role at East Suffolk Mind, a mental health charity organisation. 70% of what the role entailed had to be self-taught. He had to take experiences from other places and apply them in his then current role. After moving into agriculture, Oliver was approached with a HR Manager’s position at Two Sisters Food Group. It was a huge step for him as he had never managed anyone before. Oliver has since developed a diverse background and understanding in a variety of sectors and life-cycles. His transition from a fast-moving consumer goods environment to an industry that took time to change exposed him to many trade unions. We were keen to speak with Oliver about his perception of the HR sector and what he feels it takes to be a strong HR leader in 2019. What do you think is the key to being successful in an HR Leadership role? “I think it’s about really stretching yourself. Get as much experience as you can because as you develop your career, your opportunity to gain experience in the fundamentals of HR practice go away. You’re never going to be the finished article. You’ve got to take responsibility for your own development. Read a lot. Reading keeps your beliefs fluid. What you know to be true today might be very, very different tomorrow. Be open to be persuaded about how you approach things because how it works in one place, may not work in another. Use your knowledge as a blueprint, as a starting point. The other bit is to work hard on you, because the hardest thing is creating that level of resilience in yourself and accept that things will go wrong, it’s how you react to them that makes the difference. When things go wrong, people turn to the HR director to be the rock; you’re the barometer for the team. What are the common themes and or challenges you are facing currently? “I think Brexit will be challenging. Certainly, around the migrant workforce. We need to get better at understanding how the workforce is changing and how we need to respond to people. People are also working beyond the traditional retirement age so, the workforce composition in terms of x, y, and millennials is also changing. The days of organisational loyalty are going. It’s important that the most senior people in organisations begin to realise that now you’ve got to invest more in talent and understand that it’s okay when that talent leaves. The other point to note is the millennial generation’s approach to work is highly different. They are dependent on tech and the notion of traditional approaches to work are changing. It’s about what we can learn from this generation and how technology can encourage more agility in our working practices. I know when I work from home it saves me four hours of travel and means I can spend some more time with the family. Work around culture is key, it’s a focus for our board and led by our MD. We need to recognise how we are going to achieve world class, so it’s important that we know what we need to do to get there. We are investing time, energy and resource into shaping a culture for the future. What advice would you give HR professionals who are just getting started in their career? “Get as much experience as you can and as broad as you can. And if you don’t get it, keep trying, ask questions, find ways, be resourceful”. “Being a solutions provider makes you a great asset in any company”. Oliver says he’d rather take up a task then figure out how to carry it out later. By consulting Google, colleagues and his boss, he always found a way. “In the early days I would start saying, ‘yes’, and work my way back from there”. Oliver has been HR Director at Arriva Rail London for almost 18 months and leads the HR, Talent and Communication teams.

“Use your knowledge as a blueprint”. Oliver Gant, HR Director at Arriva Rail London talks to us about HR Leadership in 2019 Read More »

“It’s important to find whatever it is that you’re passionate about – find your hook and go after it”. Michelle Hartley, HR Director at Multivac UK.

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As part of our commitment to supporting candidates in developing fulfilling careers, we’ve invited some HR Leaders to share the secrets of their success. This week, we talked to Michelle Hartley, HR Director at Multivac UK. We asked Michelle to give us some insights into her diverse HR career, which includes roles in a range of industries such as Fast Food, Financial Services, Healthcare and Manufacturing. Michelle began her journey working at Pizza Hut while studying, and rose through the ranks eventually getting involved in Training. She received her Master’s in Human Resource Management while working at Synergy Health. Michelle has been HR Director at Multivac since 2013. Can you tell us how you got into HR? ‘Many moons ago, I started working at Pizza Hut alongside my studies. It was waitressing, and then I decided the best thing to do would be to have a career at Pizza Hut and worked my way through management. It was brilliant.’ ‘I always say to people who worry about how to build a career, businesses like Pizza Hut and retail businesses will always throw a load of development at you. So if you’re ever not sure about what to do, I always recommend to pursue things like that because you’ll actually get all of the opportunities you could ever possibly imagine.’ ‘As I went through all the management development there, I attended a session with the area trainer and basically I fell in love with HR from there. At the time I remember thinking ‘Oh my God, people do this for a career. How does that even happen?!’” ‘So that started me off thinking about HR and people and business and how it could work. I decided to leave Pizza Hut and took a massive pay drop to go from management in retail to an admin role in an office.’ ‘I’ve worked across a number of different industries now, and every single one is very different and unique in its own way. But good HR practices are similar across industries, and I quite like being able to see how my skills can fit into other business industries and different opportunities.’ Did you ever come across any objection about your lack of industry experience when interviewing for a new role? ‘I think the biggest jump was probably when I went from admin in Bristol Community Sport through to financial services. But actually what they were interested in at the time was the training skills that I could bring. It was almost like HR was the bit on the side that wasn’t as important or interesting to them.’ ‘I’ve also had a bit of a theme. When I worked at Isotron, which was acquired by Synergy Health, it was a healthcare services provider, and I think I was of interest to Spire Healthcare because of the healthcare link. And I believe I was interesting to TE Connectivity because they had a healthcare arm, so there were a few small connections.’ ‘You’ve got to make your own connections. I had a very definite goal when I moved to TE. I wanted to move into the manufacturing business because I wanted to see what it’s like to work for a business that actually made something instead of selling something. I think as an individual going into an interview, it’s important that you find your hook with why you want it, because if you get the challenge from your interviewer, you’ve then got your answer straight away and in my experience, people value that, and like to see you make a connection with their business.’ ‘TE had the biggest reservation because I didn’t have manufacturing experience. I think what they were concerned about was that I could have been too corporate. But having come through it now, it actually was a really good fit and I had a great time when I was there.’ What was it about HR that made it your career of choice? ‘I think I’ve always loved HR. Even from my Pizza Hut days when I was doing store management, I even loved the disciplinary and grievance side of things, and the recruitment piece. As my career has progressed, it’s been more about the strategic impact and the transformational aspect of HR. Initially, it was about the transactional side of things, problem solving, efficiency and admin. But as I’ve moved on and up, it’s been more about, “Why are we doing that?” and “How does that fit with our values?” and “How are we delivering revenue from this?”’ What challenges and key themes in HR are you or your peers facing at the moment? ‘The uncertainty around Brexit is just horrendous, and I think that will be a big challenge for us in our business and for our customers. In terms of HR trends, we would have challenges around engineering no longer being seen as a sexy career. What we find is that it’s always a challenge to find good quality engineers. We tend to look more outside of the food industry and go around looking at the right behavioural fit with our culture. We’ll go with complementary industries, rather than the immediate industry that we’re in. ‘ ‘It would be great to see more engineers coming through, but particularly in Swindon where we are, there’s not a great investment in engineering careers and studies’. ‘The standard challenge that I see from a lot of my peers, and internally here, is working with management development, and increasing competence and confidence within our managers to deliver more every day. Years ago, managers wouldn’t have to manage in the way that they do now, so it’s a big change for everybody. Trying to wrestle managers out of their day job to come and have good solid training and development is really difficult. We try and do great things around e-learning, conference calling and video conferencing. I do fully believe that the value added management training is great, but it’s really hard to wrestle people

“It’s important to find whatever it is that you’re passionate about – find your hook and go after it”. Michelle Hartley, HR Director at Multivac UK. Read More »

“…be clear on what you want to get out of the profession, because it is everything to everyone”. Alan Taylor, Director of HR Transformation speaks to us about his career in HR Leadership.

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As part of our commitment to supporting candidates in developing fulfilling careers, we’ve invited some HR Leaders to share the secrets of their success. This week, we had a great conversation with Alan Taylor, Director of HR Transformation and former interim Group HR Director at DS Smith. Alan also worked at DENSO for over 10 years as HR Manager and Head of HR and Information Systems for their UK site in Telford and held the role of Senior Manager for Internal Communications and Employee Engagement for their European operations. Can you tell us how you got into HR and why? “After I left university, I got a job as a temp in an HR Admin role within an engineering company in my local town. My first assignment was to process 350 appraisals. The company didn’t know how to attack the processing and visualisation of training needs within its workforce. Ultimately, the team there liked what I had done for them and offered me the role of Human Resources Development Officer. From there, they supported me in acquiring my CIPD and my career progressed from here”. Prior to getting in to HR, Alan completed a degree in Marine Biology – which could be argued to be as far removed from HR as it can be. Alan explained how he’d applied the skills he learnt at university to his new career in HR. “The science-based skills I developed at university gave me a strong background in data and pattern analysis, which are key elements of some HR dimensions. At the time, I was working for a company that was focused on powder metallurgy, which is the production of metal components from powders instead of machining it from bars and chunks of metal. Having studied science, it was immediately interesting to me. In fact, it was that scientific orientation that led me into a lifetime career in manufacturing”. Can you tell me about the challenges that you’re seeing across the HR sector? “We see the same challenges as any other global company. We’re rapidly growing. We’ve just completed a number of acquisitions over the past few years, and our organic growth is significant. Therefore, it is important to satisfy our customer in terms of demand. As a result, we see consequences for resourcing, organisation design, and judging when to add the fixed costs you need to support your growth. You don’t want to put it in ahead of the curve, but you also don’t want to be behind. So, growth is a significant challenge”. “The increasing confidence in digital technology is also a generational issue for everybody across the industry. We’re always looking to leverage technology, enhance people’s digital skills, and drive efficiencies in the administrative back office environment. These are key priorities given our history as a decentralised organisation, which has now grown to a point where we can no longer work like that.” “Another challenge for many in the industry is mobility and working and developing successful international teams. Currently my boss is in Chicago and my management colleagues are located across the globe. I’ve got plants from San Francisco to New Zealand, and everywhere in between.” How do you drive performance across borders? “It’s all about getting the best out of your business, and the only way you can do that is getting the best out of your people. None of it is rocket science, but none of it is easy because people are independently minded and need to be taken on a journey. Creating culture and change doesn’t happen overnight. Ultimately, creating an environment with a team in Thailand or in Kent requires consistent and sustainable engagement.” “So, the key to creating a self-sustaining culture is time. Over the course of my career, I’ve learnt you don’t always get there. The ultimate challenge of working with people is you’re never finished, it’s never good enough, but you can have a lot of fun along the way. You can also have a lot of success. But there are no quick fixes when you’re working with teams, whether they’re sat with you or located across the globe”. What career advice would you offer to someone either working towards a career like yours, or someone just getting started in their HR career? “I’m fortunate enough to mentor a number of people within the HR community, both inside and outside of work. People go into HR for very different reasons, but I think centrally it is important to be clear on why you are in HR”. “HR done well can have a huge influence on the business. You can have a highly diverse role where every day is different and you’re working in a strategic, as well as operational capacity. If you want to have a people-centred role, then HR is a great career path”. “It can also be quite a difficult career path because you’re servicing so many different stakeholders. You’re supporting employees and you are potentially responsible for responding to the entire workforce. From the CEO to colleagues working on the shop floor, you are responding to them as the ‘company’. You’ve got management colleagues who look to you for support. You’ve got the communities in which you operate who look to you as the company. They want to understand what you and the company are doing to improve green spaces and employment levels in their communities. And you’ve got the Board and shareholders who look to you as a function to add shareholder value by driving business performance”. “For me, HR is multi-dimensional. Therefore, as you go into the function you need to start thinking about which parts of it you’re interested in. Do you want to be a specialist? Do you want to be a generalist? And what bits of it do you like doing? Where do you find job satisfaction? It is about playing to your strengths. There’s a role for those people that are focused on people and their development. There are roles for those who

“…be clear on what you want to get out of the profession, because it is everything to everyone”. Alan Taylor, Director of HR Transformation speaks to us about his career in HR Leadership. Read More »

Don’t let your team be the Cobbler’s Children. Colin Haswell speaks to us about effective HR Leadership in 2019.

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As part of our commitment to supporting candidates in developing fulfilling careers, we’ve invited some HR Leaders to share the secrets of their success. This week, we had a great conversation with Colin Haswell, former Regional HR Director for EMEA at Rolls Royce. Colin assumed many different HR directorship roles at Rolls Royce over the span of 18 years. He also worked at Rover Group for over 15 years and in his final role was HR Director at BMW’s Oxford Mini Plant. How did you get into HR? “I went straight into it from University. I was in my second year in the middle of a degree in history and politics. I certainly didn’t want to be a teacher, which was the classic thing, and I didn’t want to continue studying into an advanced Master’s etc. So, I went into the university’s career service and I read up on everything they had to offer in the non-technical sphere and concluded that HR most closely matched what I was most interested in”. “I suspect it was because I was studying politics at the time and I was very interested in the way that power and organisations worked to produce results. I thought that’s what HR was – sitting in the middle of the organisation trying to work its way through various stakeholders to produce the best solutions for the business. I felt like I had a good analytical mind. I felt I could relate to different levels of people within organisations. I had strong analytical skills and breadth of thought, which would enable me to look at things and come up with ideas and approaches that perhaps others couldn’t. I saw HR as a way of doing that”. What kept you engaged with HR throughout your career? “It was the variety of what I was doing. I did a whole range of things working with very clever and able people mainly in supply chain and engineering. Rover was always in the news at the time. You felt you were really at the heart, the forefront of what was going on in the business”. “The car industry is a bit like a bug. It bites you. You really get wound up in it and it becomes part of you. The factories are buzzing. The engineering stuff is amazing. I used to look after the styling studio and to see those concepts becoming reality was so fascinating. I know it sounds a bit corny. You sort of fall in love with it really”. “I get very attached to what I’m doing and what the business is looking to achieve. What Rolls Royce does is phenomenal from a purely technical perspective. And I don’t just mean in terms of aerospace, but also the marine, energy, and nuclear stuff they are doing. They are operating at the leading edge of what’s possible in terms of engineering, manufacturing, etc. So, I was pulled into what we were doing like a magnet, and you do get into all of that”. “With Rolls Royce I started doing something akin to what I did in Rover/BMW. I then worked in organisational development and talent. I led an HR transformation programme. I’ve did a lot of UK centric work before I joined Rolls Royce and have grown my international experience since then. Through the various businesses and activities that I was involved with, I gained a good global overview of what works for HR in different situations, in different businesses and in different cultures. And that’s what kept me there for that length of time”. What kind of key skills do you think are important in a successful HR leadership role? “I think you have to split it into two. One bit of it is doing the actual doing the HR stuff with the business. And I think the number one the thing for me is you’ve got to have credibility, and business savvy, and accessibility to senior leaders within an organization. If you haven’t got that, you’re lost, you can’t progress any further. And that’s why people tend not to succeed not because they haven’t got the technical ability, it’s because they haven’t got the credibility and they haven’t built the relationships that they need with senior leaders in the business. For me that’s the number one thing”. “The business knowledge and so on, it’s linked to the first bit and it helps the credibility. But you’ve got to be interested in what’s going on in your part of the business and have knowledge at a level that you can understand what it all means, so you can contribute more broadly on top of just the HR remit”. “I think what has evolved is the focus on analytics and it will continue to evolve even more in my career. I think that’s become a real big thing within HR. So, the ability to look at situations and be clever about the key pieces of information, data, and other things that are going on, and being able to stand back and put the whole thing together into a cohesive story or approach is vital”. “Part of that is the pure analytical metrics. But that’s not the whole story. You’ve got to be able to use that within what’s going on the softer side of business. You need to have the ability to think systemically and put the two things together to start to come up with solutions or ways of supporting what the business needs to do”. “I think being able to act as an advisor or coach around change is also quite critical now. It took me a while to realize, but the work I used to do in my early career in employee relations was a form of classically applied change management. And therefore, supporting the business and having the skills to nudge things forwards from a business point of view is vital. Linked to that is having the right people on the talent side, because they’re

Don’t let your team be the Cobbler’s Children. Colin Haswell speaks to us about effective HR Leadership in 2019. Read More »

“Be willing to take a risk” Maria Manion, Chief Executive at Watford BID talks to us about Leadership in 2019

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As part of our commitment to adding value beyond the connection, we have been speaking with CEO’s, COO’s and HR leaders across the UK. We wanted to understand more about how they developed careers, the challenges they face and how they have achieved their success. This week, we spoke with Maria Manion, Chief Executive at Watford BID. We asked Maria a few questions about her current leadership role and to offer some insight into the sector. Maria was a Regeneration Manager for different district and city councils, and was most recently Town Centre Manager of the Watford Borough Council before setting up and heading Watford BID. What would you say were the three most important leadership capabilities to be a successful leader in 2019? “Creativity and being open. Sometimes you can get bogged down in process, but you can always do something if you really want to just by being a bit more creative about your approach.” “I think sometimes it’s about an intuitive understanding of the environment that you’re working in. And I do think that’s an undefined thing that leaders tend to have. It’s intuitive adaptability. It’s almost like being a chameleon.” “The third one is to be quite flexible, innovative and not to be scared. I think fear actually cripples a lot of people. Be willing to take a risk” What challenges are you facing from a leadership capacity? Are you seeing any changes taking place from a leadership or recruitment point of view? “This is a very hands-on organization. It’s only a small team. We’re quite limited on the salaries that we offer, which means that we have to really look at people who love the job more than the money.” “I think recruitment is difficult, but that might be our proximity to London. We’re very close to London, but we’re not London. When I recruited for the Marketing Manager, I interviewed people who wanted to get out of London, and that was the wrong motivation for the post.” “We need to balance salaries and the demands of the business with the post and the individuals, ensuring the job is attractive to the right calibre of person – with the right motivations.” Watford BID started trading in 2016 with Maria at the helm. Maria will continue with her role until the end of BID’s five-year term. If you are interested in having a confidential conversation about your career or would like support growing your team, please get in touch today.

“Be willing to take a risk” Maria Manion, Chief Executive at Watford BID talks to us about Leadership in 2019 Read More »

“Always put your hand up and keep your eyes and ears open”. Helen Tindle, HR Director at Iceland talks to us about developing a career in HR Leadership in 2019

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“Always put your hand up and keep your eyes and ears open”. Helen Tindle, HR Director at Iceland talks to us about developing a career in HR Leadership in 2019 Read More »

“People are complex but often the solution is simple” Michelle Wren, HR Director at Freedom Finance Ltd speaks to us about HR Leadership in 2019

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We’ve asked some Senior HR Leaders about their career and their current roles to inspire and inform future HR leaders. This week, we spoke to Michelle Wren, HR Director of Freedom Finance. Michelle started her HR career in 2006 as a Personnel & Development Officer for a leading property management company in Manchester. Michelle received her graduate certificate in Human Resource Management from Salford Business School in 2011. We asked Michelle a few questions about HR leadership in 2019. What makes a successful HR Leader in 2019? I think it’s key to always remain very approachable and hands on. It’s important to be pragmatic and take a balanced view of the situation. I know what’s going on in the business, I understand what’s going on with our people and that’s not always directly related to the business. I am a big believer in not over complicating things and keeping them simple. Some issues can be tricky to overcome because you’re dealing with people and people are complex but often the solution is simple. You have to consider people’s emotions, their strengths, their weaknesses and their ambitions. Keeping it simple and understanding things from everyone’s perspective has really helped me support teams throughout my HR career. What led to you entering the HR field? I didn’t know what I wanted to do for a long while until I met a fabulous woman who sat me down around 15 years ago. It was then I was told everything on my CV pointed to HR. I had never thought of HR before this. I’ve preferred customer focused roles in the past. I really enjoy talking to customers and people, while remaining a proper level of distance. After that I went onto my CIPD level five within a smaller organisation of around 57 people. It was there that I built my HR career and I’m proud that a lot of things I put in place there are still in place. From there I was hooked! I loved seeing how HR protected the business and helped get the best out of people. It was a big learning curve for me, but it was exciting! What are the prevalent themes of challenges the organisation is facing with regards to HR? The biggest concern for us at the moment is recruitment. People are adapting and have changed their expectations of roles. Candidate attraction is a key theme for us at the moment. Employer branding is a big piece of this puzzle. We’re in competition with a lot of organisations. We recruit a lot of IT professionals, we’re finding that IT professionals want a lot of home working. So, we need to adapt to attract the top talent. We’re adopting flexi time and implementing some home working policies. How has Recruitment changed within Freedom? We changed how we approached recruitment back in 2014. We were heavily reliant on agency and agency costs were high. We now have an in-house recruiter and 90% of her role is Recruitment. We use various sources; Job Boards, LinkedIn, Social Media. But a key focus is internal recruitment. We do a lot of internal promotion. That’s something we’re very proud of. We have a good succession plan in place. The last time we looked at our internal development it was over 45%. So we promote our talent and develop them through the business which also supports our employer branding. We have a contact centre which is where much of our team enter the business. It’s a really good incubator for the business. I’m not sure that the contact centre like it; they keep losing people. But that should be something that they’re really proud of. It’s a lovely feeling, growing people. Michelle has been with Freedom Finance for over 4 years and leads the HR function. If you would like to have a confidential conversation about your career in HR or would like support in growing your team, please get in touch today.

“People are complex but often the solution is simple” Michelle Wren, HR Director at Freedom Finance Ltd speaks to us about HR Leadership in 2019 Read More »

“Keep it simple and clear, keep close to the important things and be true to your values” Martin Farrow, CEO at Optalis talks to us about Leadership in 2019.

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In order to successfully inform and inspire business leaders of the future, we have been interviewing CEOs across a variety of industry sectors. Martin Farrow of Optalis is our most recent guest. As an individual who has spent time in a variety of Leadership roles in the corporate world, Martin’s views on leadership are influenced by his experiences and make for insightful advice for those looking to lead people in the future. How do you view your role as a leader? “The role of a leader can be split in three ways; the first is establishing the direction of travel. It’s important to do that inclusively, you can’t just email the strategy out – people need to be engaged and involved from the get-go. The second is to ensure you have great people on board who are inspired to do amazing things. And the third is to make sure you’ve got the right culture. If you get the right culture, you’re going to get great people doing great things which combined will deliver your strategy. In an organisation the size of Optalis, how do you ensure that the culture is disseminated effectively? Making sure that my board has the same view and approach is absolutely key because what they can do is then make sure that our message, our values, our ethos emanates throughout the organisation. The Optalis leadership team is transparent and accessible; our desks are spread around the office – we don’t lock ourselves away in our own offices all day with the doors closed. What do you feel are important leadership capabilities for 2019? “You have to accept the fact that you don’t know everything so your first priority should be to develop your knowledge base by working with, and supporting talented people. As leader your task is to inspire people to do great things so it is incumbent on you to make sure they have everything they need – in terms of tools and information – to achieve their goals.” “One of the key challenges of leadership is relinquishing control and the hardest single part of this process is judging the right time to give them that responsibility. You have to give them the ability to excel, and support that, but it means you’ve got to be brave and not micro-manage them. You’ve got to make sure that you get that distance right”. What advice would you offer to someone looking to develop a career in Leadership? “Choose your boss and have a constant appetite to listen and learn. Work with great people and recognise that your job as a leader is about fulfilling the potential of those around you to be the best they can be. Build the strategy together so everyone is involved and don’t give up or be a friend of phrase ‘the problem is’. Finally, try every day to be inspired and be inspiring”. “Keep it simple and clear, keep close to the important things and be true to your values. I was told once that if you don’t start something or don’t finish something then you are in trouble. That’s good advice”. Martin has been with Optalis for almost 18 months and leads a team of over 700 to make a difference to nearly 5,000 customers across Windsor, Maidenhead, Wokingham and beyond. If you would like to have a confidential conversation about your career, please get in touch today.

“Keep it simple and clear, keep close to the important things and be true to your values” Martin Farrow, CEO at Optalis talks to us about Leadership in 2019. Read More »

Using smart recruitment to secure the perfect candidate – who wasn’t even looking

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If you know anything about Human, you’ll know that we don’t sit around waiting for the perfect candidates to drop into our lap. You can’t in this climate, where unemployment is at its lowest rate and the choices for talented people are better than ever. We are proactive networkers and build relationships as part of our daily routines to ensure that when we are asked to fill a role we can look beyond the candidates who are already actively looking for a new job if that’s what we need to do. Take a recent example of a role we filled for The Sheffield College. They were looking for a data protection officer and had drawn blanks in their own search. At the time, the final implementation date for new data protection legislation GDPR had just passed, so we knew that many people who were contractors with that specialism would likely have just finished temporary roles. Using the networks we’d nurtured, we asked whether anyone had let go of a superstar who had recently completed a project for them and were surprised to be given the details of a direct report of one of our contacts who had revealed to his manager he was ready for a move, but hadn’t yet started looking. (There’s a whole other blog about being able to be honest with your boss about looking for another role!) Seb Smith turned out to be the star that The Sheffield College were looking for and we were able to connect them using our innovative recruitment platform, Human DNA™. Seb may not have been offered an interview if he’d applied with his CV in the traditional way. One example is that his job title and the stage he was at in his career didn’t reflect the level of skills and responsibilities he had in his current role. Human DNA™ negates these issues by making the recruitment process much more personal and demonstrating more than just an individual’s skills and experience. It shows more of the whole person behind the CV. This level of detail ensures not only the quality of the shortlist but also offer assurances that both parties are engaged and committed to the recruitment process. Human DNA™ allows us to: Profile both the role and the organisation to establish exactly what skills and behaviours being sought – This is a detailed approach, and includes ensuring that team dynamics will be balanced with any new recruit Profile candidates we judge may be suitable to see how well-matched to the role they are Create profiles of the top three candidates with pictures and a short introductory video so they can explain why they are interested in the role and a bit more about themselves Include a behavioural profile of the candidates alongside an executive summary written by us and their CV Showcase the candidates with the opportunity to add six facts about themselves – giving them a chance to show off their personality Assure the recruiter the candidates can meet their standards by posing six competency-based questions that the candidates answer in writing. This also allows them to assess spelling and grammar as well as potential skills and knowledge Ask up to five questions by video which the candidates have a limited amount of time to answer. This shows how they perform under pressure, as well as being another opportunity to show off their skills and knowledge The whole system works online so those shortlisting can work independently, sharing comments and feedback with one another remotely and removing the need to synchronise diaries for extensive shortlisting sessions. Our smart recruitment process gave The Sheffield College the confidence to look beyond Sebastian’s experience and job title to see the real skills, knowledge and aptitude he could bring to the role. It also gave Seb the confidence to go for an interview knowing he had been screened in depth and that the organisation was seriously interested in him. Our rigorous process means that face-to-face interviews have much more value, being more like a second interview as all of the basics have been covered remotely, with a much-reduced time investment for both candidate and recruiter. Sebastian says: “The personal touch of HumanDNA was pivotal to me securing my role with The Sheffield College. It’s nearly impossible to get an understanding of someone’s personality through a conventional CV and it’s amazing to see Human utilising the times we are living in through video interviews and the Human DNA™ platform in general. It’s something I’ve never seen or heard of before. I would not have been aware of the role at The Sheffield College if Amy hadn’t reached out to me. She seemed to have a perfect understanding of exactly what the College were looking for. It’s always beneficial if the company and the recruiter are on the same page and in this instance it worked perfectly.” Paul Simpson Executive Director of HR and OD at The Sheffield College said: “Finding the right match for our Data Protection Officer had been challenging, in part because we ideally wanted not just a technical specialist but someone who could successfully communicate and engage with others on Data Protection matters. “Amy understood our requirements and through talking to her and through Human DNA ™ we had a good shortlist of candidates to interview and were delighted to appoint Seb to the role.” If you think Human DNA™ could help you recruit or find a new job, give one of the friendly team a call.

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Using smart recruitment to secure the perfect candidate – who wasn’t even looking

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